Primary Chorister 101

Thursday, June 9, 2016

For Father's Day this year, we will be singing 'Fathers' in sacrament meeting. The whole primary will sing just the CHORUS and I have assigned three soloists in our primary to sing the verses. There are two ways to teach this song: 1. Using just the flipchart with missing pictures and fish for pictures

Add tape to your fishing pole hook or use a clothes pin to catch the pictures

or2. Using the flipchart that has the pictures already and fishing for tangible items in the pictures.

If using tangible items you will need: a watch, helmet, dog, spyglass, and a home.
Also a large table cloth or sheet to fish over, a fishing pole (I tied a shoelace to a broken pole and a hanger for the hook), and your choice of flipchart.

Either way, the kids will enjoy being handed a fishing pole to learn the song! Happy Fishing!Materials (PDFs):
Again, this is just the CHORUS. Verses are being sung by soloists.

Intro to 'Fathers':From Camille's Primary IdeasWrite on the board 'Fathers' then say,"Did you know there are all kinds of fathers?" For Junior primary, guide them to list the different fathers by asking, "Who is the father of our ward? Bishop! Because he watches over all of us like a family" or "Does anyone have a grandpa?" etc. For Senior primary, let them lead the discussion.

I adapted this chart from Camille's post. She originally got this idea from A Children's Songbook Companion. See link above.

Intro to Fishing:Show the children the picture of President Monson fishing with his son (You can get this picture from the link below). Ask them to guess who the dad is. "One special thing that our prophet loved to do with his children, is take them fishing!"President Monson's Fishing Story"Father's like to do special things that show they're love for us. What's something special that does your dad, grandpa, or any of the kind of fathers we talked about like to do with you?"SING: "Fathers are so special, with a very special love."Fishing Time!Fish for two items and then sing the whole line. Take time to explain each picture/item and how fathers do that action.Finished Flipchart

Saturday, April 30, 2016

After searching, praying, thinking, stressing, and racking my brain to come up with a great idea of how to teach "Praise to the Man" to the Primary, the answer came so simply: let the children teach. Usually when I invite the children to help me teach, or assign different parts to the older children to teach, I am humbled and reawaken to the ever so true fact: their ideas are SO much better than mine. So it will be with this powerful song.

We will be working on this hymn all throughout May, so my schedule will be as follows.

May 1st: Intro with guest Bagpiper on history of W.W. Phelps with emphasis on learning the melody. See Below for Lesson Plan.(Any extra time will be spent working on our Mother's Day song for next week's sacrament meeting.)May 8th: CHORUSMay 15th: 1st verseMay 22nd: 3rd verseMay 29th:Silent Sing with both verses and chorus. This is an idea from Sharla Dance. She has a great blog filled with so many good ideas.

*Any extra singing time this month will be spent learning a song for Father's Day on June 19th.

The Chorus, 1st Verse, and 3rd Verse are broken up into four lines each.

So there will be 4 helpers each Sunday.

I used THIS CHART to stay organized.How I give out teaching assignments (Give out assignments the week before they teach):

1. Call/Talk to the parent of the child to see if they'll be here the week they will teach. Explain to them what his/her child will need to do to prepare (Learn the line, be prepared to teach it to the whole primary using a prop of some sort and or actions). Tell the parent I will be over to give a personal invite to their child.

2. Go to the house of the child. I do this so they will feel important. Also, if I hand it out at church other children might feel left out or not special.

3. Give them a slip of paper with their assignment.

4. Call/Text a reminder to the child's parents the Saturday before the Sunday they teach.

5. Be prepared to help a child who didn't come prepared.

6. I try to take a little Thank You note to them after church the day they teach.

Teaching Backwards!

We will be learning "Praise to the Man" backwards. Here's the order for the chorus, 1st verse, and 3rd verse.

Chorus:
1. Death cannot conquer the hero again.
2. Mingling with Gods he can plan for his brethren.
3. Traitors and Tyrants now fight him in vain.
4. Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven!

1st Verse:
1. Kings shall extol him, and nations revere.
2. Blessed to open the last dispensation.
3. Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer.
4. Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!

3rd Verse:
1. Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old.
2. Faithful and true, he will enter his kingdom,
3. Ever and ever the keys he will hold.
4. Great is his glory and endless his priesthood.

I will have the first helper come up and teach the first (last line). We will sing their line a few times then I will call the next helper up. We will sing their line and the line we just learned. And so on and so forth until all four helpers are up in front of the class and we sing the whole chorus or verse.

Introduction to "Praise to the Man"

Source for W.W. Phelps storyMy intro will be something like:
"Remember how we talked about how a lot of songs are poems? Well, we have another song that is a poem, written by this man." Show picture of William W. Phelps. "He jointed the church after reading the Book of Mormon." Show first edition Book of Mormon. "Later, he left the church and made some wrong choices. After awhile, he was sad and felt really bad for the choices he had made. He decided to come back to the church. He asked for forgiveness from the Lord and the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was welcomed back into the church again. He loved the Prophet Joseph and he wrote a poem about him. William W. Phelps has ancestors from Scotland." Show Scotland on the globe. "They put his poem to a song from Scotland when they made it a hymn. I thought it would be fun to go visit Scotland and hear this song. It's played on an instrument from Scotland. When I say go, start singing 'I am a Child of God' and line up behind me. We are going to pretend to go to Scotland. Ready GO! I am a Child of God..."I invited a young man in a different Stake to come play the bagpipes for the Primary.

Will replace with a real picture after tomorrow :-)

We will walk around the church to where he is and he will say, "Welcome to Scotland! Does anyone know what these are called? That's right, Bagpipes! This tune is called Scotland the Brave and it's the tune for "Praise to the Man."
After he plays the song through, "I have another Bag of pipes for you. Come get one and try to play the tune with me this time by saying DO DO DO in the pipe to the same tune."

"Thanks for visiting Scotland!"

How to make little pipes out of PVC, ribbon, and mod podge
1. Two 10 ft long 3/4" pipes at Home Depot (mine were $1.49 each)
2. Cut 5" increments with chop saw.
3. Drill out 5 holes in front of pipe and one behind.
4. Dip ends in Mod Podge.
5. Tie ribbon in hold in back of pipe.

Monday, April 4, 2016

With Mother's Day just around the corner, I'm getting a head start on learning our two songs for sacrament meeting: My Mother Dear and Grandmother. This lesson is just for My Mother Dear, since I will be doing actions for Grandmother (which if you look at the lyrics to Grandmother the actions are pretty self explanatory.)With this lesson, the children will get to choose a word that's missing. Have fun and maybe sing the wrong word on purpose :-) After each word, they will sing a song that gets the wiggles out. At the end, you will have a Flipchart to continue learning and reviewing the song for Mother's Day. For Senior Primary, there is a Relay Game using the words of this song.

Introduction: "Who knows what a poem is??! That's right. It's a different way to tell a story or feelings. Sometimes it rhymes or has a unique rhythm. Did you know that a lot of songs are poems?! In fact, the song we will be learning today is a poem. Now, I learned about poems in school, so let's pretend we are in Singing School today! When I say go, you guys can come sit in front of me on the floor and I'll be the teacher. You guys are going to help me write this poem for our song. Sing reverently as you come and find a spot on the floor. Go." Start singing I am a Child of God as the children find their spot.

Have the Flipchart papers displayed on the board with

only the first line showing and the rest turned over.

Read the 1st line with the missing word, "Like blank in the morning that wakens day from night. Hmmm...what would waken day from night? Sunshine or Raindrops? Raise your hand if you think Sunshine. Raise your hand if you think Raindrops." Whichever one they pick, sing the line with that word until they pick the right one. "Yes, I agree. I think Sunshine fits best for this poem! Let's sing a song about Sunshine." Stand up and sing Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.

Flip over the next two papers.

Read the 2nd line with the missing word, "Like blank in the springtime so colorful and bright. Hmm...what is so colorful and bright? Flowers or squirrels? Raise your hand if you think flowers. Raise your hand if you think squirrels." Whichever one they pick, sing the line with that word until they pick the right one. "Yes, I agree. Flowers fit best for this line of the poem. Let's sing about flowers." Stand up and sing Popcorn Popping. "Did you know Popcorn poppingis about flowers?!"

Flip over the next two papers.

Read the 3rd line with the missing word, "Like blank of bluebirds that fill the air with cheer. Hmm...fill the air with cheer? We have either happy songs or scaly feet. Raise your hand if you think happy songs. Raise your hand if you think scaly feet." Whichever one they pick, sing the line with that word until they pick the right one. "Yes, I agree. Happy songs fits best and scaly feet is just silly. Let's sing a happy song." Stand and singIf You're Happy.

Flip over the last two papers.

Read the last line with the missing word, "A blank bright and lovely is my mother dear....Hmm...what is your mother? A person or a starfish. Haha I think we all know. But let's vote to make sure. Raise your hand if your mother is a person. Raise your hand if your mother is a starfish. Oh good! No one has a starfish mom :-) Let's sing about being a person." Stand up and sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

"Hurray we finished our poem! We will be singing this one quite a bit so we can sing it to your mother's on Mother's Day! Thanks for helping me with it!"Bear your testimony.

Senior Primary Relay Game (Printable PDF at the top of the page). I put magnets on the back of the words, but you could use sticky tack or tape.

Write before Singing Time or have them sing a song while you write it on the board.

1. Sing through the song one time using the Flipchart above. Before singing, remind the children to listen carefully and try to remember the words.

2. Split the children into two teams. Have them line up facing the board. Explain the rules of the game, which are:

The person at the beginning of the line will come to the board.

He or she will choose a word and place it in one of the blanks where they think it should go.

Then they race back and touch the hand of the next person in line.

That person will go to the board.

They can choose to place a new word, or move a word that has already been placed to a different blank.

When all the blanks are filled on any team the race is over and everyone must STOP.

3. Sing the song as written on the board; even with words in the wrong spaces. Keep playing until all the words are correct.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Since I focused on Easter this month and since the Primary is singing in sacrament meeting, I'm having this week's lesson focus more on General Conference.

**PLEASE NOTE: The original mini coloring book that I got the idea from is here.

Lesson: Use the mini coloring book to review If I Listen With My Heart. Emphasize, for those who can't read, that they know all the words in this book. Talk about how we need to listen with our hearts during General Conference so we can feel the Spirit. Maybe compare just listening with our ears and listening with our hearts. With our ears, we can hear. With our hearts, we can feel. Share experiences and ask for theirs. Sing a few times with the book so they can "read" it to someone in their family.

OPTION: I printed the mini coloring book on one side of the sheet of paper, then copied another General Conference activity on the back for the children to open up and do during Conference. I did a Bingo card for the Junior Primary and a Note-Taking sheet for Senior Primary. Both emphasize LISTENing.

Front/Back Junior Primary

Front/Back Senior Primary

How to Make the General Conference Mini Coloring Book - If I Listen With My Heart

There'll be be a slight slit in the worksheet, but totally functional. Enjoy General Conference!

I bought these pens at Zurchers at 12 for $8

After note: The lesson went well. I think will help the needed review for the 2nd and 3rd verse especially. We gave them a click-pen for Easter to go with their little book and to mark their scriptures.

About Me

Hello. I am a stay-at-home mom. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and am currently serving as Primary Chorister in our ward. I am loving it! I learn so much from the children and they are so patient with me and my ...(clears throat)..."beautiful" voice.